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Amidst the rush of 1,000-plus new vehicles, another 19 collector and museum cars are set apart, affording calm and context, exciting the eye and imagination, documenting the evolution of modern mankind's most personal means of rapid transit. Art and The Automobile (Room 718, MTCC South Building) positions these vehicles - from Canada's first, the 1867 Seth Taylor Steam Buggy, through Ford's 1963 Mustang II show car - before archival backdrops and prints of the works of foremost automotive artists Ken Dallison and Jay Koka. And so the 1953 Buick Skylark appears in front of a Toronto skyline dominated by the Royal York Hotel, as viewed from green parkland south of Union Station. Rocket Science VFX created the backdrop from a Toronto Archives photograph. Others, like the pre-Model T 1903 Ford, motor forward from scenes in Murdoch Mysteries in which they've had star turns. The Mustang II that previews the pony car age has just gassed up at a Supertest station, the Canadian brand that disappeared into BP in 1973. "The idea is to trick the eye into thinking the car is driving out of its era," says Rob McLeese of the Cobble Beach Concours d'Elegance, which is presenting Art and The Automobile along with Murdoch Mysteries. "I always look at the automobile as art, so when the show invited our involvement, I considered it a perfect fit." Jay Koka feels similar comfort with the venue. "This is pretty much the biggest group of work I've showed in Canada," the Waterloo-based artist says of four major original paintings in the CIAS Exotica Exhibit in the north building, and an array of prints in Art and The Automobile.

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A 1936 Cord 810 Phaeton. A few automobiles in the Art in Automobiles exhibit at the Canadian International Auto Show 2015. Media preview day at the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto on Feb 12 2015.The Globe and Mail

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1941 Cadillac 60 SpecialThe Globe and Mail

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America was singing In My Merry Oldsmobile in 1905 but Ransom Eli Olds already had moved on another company – Reo, from his initials – that grew into the country’s fourth wealthiest auto maker by 1907. The first Trans-Canada drive, in 1912, was in a Reo manufactured in St. Catharines, Ont.Christos Kalohoridis

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Joseph Figoni’s sweeping fenders, inspired by the Arc en Ciel aircraft, made the coach-built Delahaye the sensation of the 1936 Paris auto salon. One of three surviving short-wheelbase teardrop coupes, the featured car was selected best-in-show at the 2014 Cobble Beach concours.

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Land-speed record holder Malcolm Campbell bought this T37 from Ettore Bugatti in 1928, after winning the 1927 Grand Prix de Boulogne. Several owners later, North York industrialist Bud McDougald imported it to Canada in 1954; he’s blamed for the regrettable black paint covering up the fabulous Bugatti blue.Craig Watkins

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Buick turned its back on mass production to craft its 50th anniversary statement, the Skylark convertible, chopping the standard Roadmaster’s windshield by three inches, shaping contours with lead filler, framing chrome wire wheels with full cut-out openings. Erickson searched five years for the perfect example before buying this car at Hershey, Penn.

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Christos Kalohoridis

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While other cars looked jet-propelled – check out that 1959 Cadillac’s fins and after-burner taillamps – the Chrysler Turbine was jet-propelled. And 203 American families scored three-month test drives in 50 copper-colored coupes before Chrysler determined they’d crash land commercially .

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A 1959 Cadillac Cyclone Concept Car. A few automobiles in the Art in Automobiles exhibit at the Canadian International Auto Show 2015. Media preview day at the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto on Feb 12 2015.The Globe and Mail

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A 1959 Cadillac Cyclone Concept Car. A few automobiles in the Art in Automobiles exhibit at the Canadian International Auto Show 2015. Media preview day at the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto on Feb 12 2015.The Globe and Mail

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1932 Packard 900 'Shovel Nose' Roadster. A few automobiles in the Art in Automobiles exhibit at the Canadian International Auto Show 2015. Media preview day at the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto on Feb 12 2015.The Globe and Mail

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1932 Packard 900 'Shovel Nose' Roadster. A few automobiles in the Art in Automobiles exhibit at the Canadian International Auto Show 2015.The Globe and Mail

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This 1903 Ford was featured in episode 506 of Murdoch Mysteries.The Globe and Mail

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A 1912 Stutz Bearcat (LEFT) and a 1936 Delahaye Type 135 Competition Court Teardrop Coupe (RIGHT).The Globe and Mail

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A 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Seville (R).The Globe and Mail

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The long rear fin of a 1950 Cadillac Cyclone concept car sits near the entrance to the Art and the Automobile exhibit.The Globe and Mail

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A visitor stops to look at a 1903 Ford that's part of the Art and the Automobile exhibit.The Globe and Mail

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A 1950 Cadillac Cyclone concept car sits near the entrance to the Art and the Automobile exhibit.The Globe and Mail

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